Krabi Pre-Wedding Shoot

On Sunday, KU and I went down to our bridal salon to go through the layout of our pre-wedding album and got the softcopy of our pictures at the same time! :D I gotta say that, even though I'd loads of complaints about the salon, the pictures turned out really really nice and that we really had good make-up artists and good photographers who cracked jokes to relax us in order for us to pose naturally.We actually had our pictures taken in Krabi this January, and then locally in March. It was my first time to Krabi and I loooovvvveeed the place!



Road leading to Ao Nang Beach





Just for laughs: check out the name of the clinic!



Thailand has no lack of beachy areas and many people usually go to Phuket when they are looking for a beach destination in the Land of Smiles, but Krabi, in my opinion, is more beautiful and raw than Phuket. Even though we were there for a short 3D2N trip, I completely fell in love with Tup Island, which was our first shoot location for the day. It was a pity that we did not extend our stay in Krabi cos I would have loved to explore Phi Phi Island too. But I guess that means that we'll be going back some day to settle some 'unfinished business'! :D

Upon reaching Krabi in the late afternoon, we took a taxi from the airport to our hotel, which was called The Small Hotel. (I remember asking our studio coordinator which hotel we would be staying in and she was like, "Oh, the small hotel." And I thought, "Ok, she doesn't know the name of the hotel so we'll just look out for a small hotel." Then, as though she read my thoughts, our coordinator said, "The hotel is called The Small Hotel, but it's not really that small." And I was like, "OH! That's the name of the hotel!") The Small Hotel is this orange building located along a small junction, only 2 minutes away from Ao Nang Beach. As the taxi turned into the junction, my greedy eyes spotted a pancake stall just outside the hotel! *salivates*



The Small Hotel





The list of hotels along this street



After checking in, we went up to our room and were greeted by a really big and clean room, with an ensuite washroom/shower that was about one-third the size of the room, and really luxurious and clean too! Yes, clean hotel rooms with clean toilets are very very important to me.



Towel swans and rose petals on the bed





Clean washroom/shower!



Mini pantry of sorts



Our cosy balcony which we had no time to utilise. :x





Voyeuring our neighbours across the building :P





1st floor rooms with their own pool right at their balcony



Spacious corridor

 After setting our things down, I insisted on visiting the pancake stall I had spotted earlier. And well, what was sold were not soft fluffy pancakes, but roti prata with all sorts of sweet sauces on it, which I really preferred over pancakes! :D


Pancake menu





Pancake uncle



Our 'pancake' with condensed milk and chocolate sauce

 With our tummies happily filled with chocolate sauced-prata, we decided to explore the area near our hotel and scout for potential dinner places at the same time. Walking in the direction away from Ao Nang Beach, we were led to a street of dilapidated shops which were mostly selling groceries. :( Was disappointed cos I thought I could buy some Thai knickknacks to bring home. So we headed to a beach that was just across the street. 



Tiny translucent crab scurrying across the sand with its prey in its pincer

 We had an early dinner so that we could sleep early cos we had to wake up at 4am the next morning to get our hair and make-up (more like my hair and make-up cos the make-up artist spent less than 30 mins on KU!) done for the photoshoot. Dinner was at this seafood restaurant by the beach that we were at, and the food was -___- to say the least. Ambience was nice though with the strong seabreeze that came in. The service staff was abit weird though, cos we bought a 1-litre bottle of mineral water from the restaurant and she kept topping up our glasses even when they were still about three-quarters full. We asked her not to refill our glasses cos we couldn't finish the water and wanted to bring the remaining back to the hotel with us. And she kept nodding and saying, "OKAY!" really loudly, but she kept doing it anyway, until we resorted to covering our glasses with our hands everytime she was near our table. :S

So while eating, I saw this man walking along the beach with a large plastic bag in one hand and he was waving a large paper lantern in his other hand. After some discussion (yes, it was serious), we bought a paper lantern from him, wrote our wishes on it and sent it into the sky. On hindsight, it was a really environmentally-unfriendly thing to do and KU did highlight it during our 'discussion', but I wanted to do touristy stuff and I promised (I think) that this would be our first and last time. We stood there for a long while, watching our paper lantern fly higher and higher until we couldn't see it anymore. The uncle who sold us the lantern also stood beside us and watched the lantern with us, which I thought was really sweet of him to do so. :)



Writing my wishes



KU writing his wishes



Lantern uncle lights up the solid fuel in the centre of the lantern base



Flip it over carefully



Let go with mouths wide open



Byebye lantern!

 The photoshoot took the entire second day and we were sooooo tired after all the adrenaline rush of posing together and seeing beautiful new places in a foreign country. I had a total of 4 outfits, KU had 3, and we went to 4 different places to shoot. Such an awesome experience which made me feel a twinge of sadness when the day ended. :x

A few of my favourite shots:

On Tup Island:

At a rubber plantation:

At the National Park:

Near our hotel:

To end our last night in Krabi on a high note (sort of), we decided to have seafood for dinner. Our make-up artist recommended this place called Aree Baba, which she said was approximately 10 minutes from our hotel by car. Well, we were going by foot, so it took us wayyyyy longer than that. Best of all, she couldn't remember which side of the road the restaurant was on and she said to just keep following the path from the hotel, past Ao Nang Beach, and further down until we see it. 0___0

So we walked, and walked, and walked. Somewhere around the 15 minute mark, I started grumbling. Hehe.. Thank God the route was interesting - there were shops selling sundresses, straw hats, bikinis, string bracelets, diving bags, and restaurants specialising in all sorts of cuisine - and we could people watch - so many Caucasian tourists around. After trudging along for more than 30 minutes, KU spotted the restaurant across the road and I was jumping for joy in my heart (finally, FOOODDDD).

And I gotta say, the food was somewhat worth the long walk there (and back). The fish was super fresh and it was drenched in spicy and tangy sauce that just flooded my tastebuds with bliss. The phad thai was to-die-for, fried slightly wet (as compared to the Thai Express one in SG) and just really really delicious - I don't even know how to describe it - and awesome.

 Aree Ba Ba menu	 Fresh seafood displayed at the shop front 
 Grilled fish with Thai sauce; BBQ-ed king prawns  Phad thai Beautiful Ao Nang Beach	 Fried asparagus with tofu  Last 'pancake' for the trip 

Just a short trip, but it was a really meaningful one. :) Now everytime Mum suggests going to Phuket I cringe and go, "I prefer Krabi. Let's go to Krabi!" Hehe.. But really, we'll be back someday.